When, why, and how early humans began to eat meat are three of the most fundamental unresolved questions in the study of human origins. Before 2.5 million years ago the presence and importance of meat in the hominid diet is unknown. After stone tools appear in the fossil record it seems clear that meat was eaten in increasing quantities, but whether it was obtained through hunting or scavenging remains a topic of intense debate. This book takes a novel and strongly interdisciplinary approach to the role of meat in the early hominid diet, inviting well-known researchers who study the human fossil record, modern hunter-gatherers, and nonhuman primates to contribute chapters to a volume that integrates these three perspectives. Stanford's research has been on the ecology of hunting by wild chimpanzees. Bunn is an archaeologist who has worked on both the fossil record and modern foraging people. This will be a reconsideration of the role of hunting, scavenging, and the uses of meat in light of recent data and modern evolutionary theory. There is currently no other book, nor has there ever been, that occupies the niche this book will create for itself.
Dr. Craig Stanford is a well-known authority on the behavior of primates and other animals, and on the biological and cultural roots of human behavior. He is Professor of Anthropology and Biological Sciences at USC and Director of the USC Jane Goodall Research Center. Stanford has conducted field research on primates (especially our close relatives the chimpanzee and mountain gorilla) and other animals for 20 years in Africa and Asia. He is best known for his research on chimpanzee hunting and meat-eating, done in collaboration with his mentor Jane Goodall, and for his work on the ecological relationship between chimpanzee and gorillas in forests where the two apes occur together. He has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards for both his research and writing, and is a frequent guest on radio and tv.
Stanford is the author of more than 120 scholarly and popular articles on animal behavior and human nature topics. In addition to his primate and human origins works, Stanford has recently published The Last Tortoise (Harvard University Press, 2010) about the race against extinction for many of the world's endangered tortoises. He is currently working on a book about the conservation issues facing the great apes.
